I am surprised at how rapidly elite U.S. Universities have crumbled under pressure from the Trump administration and are cracking down on pro-Palestinian activism.
Here is an email I sent to Harvard’s president today in response to an email sent by Harvard’s leadership to all alumni signalling that it is willing to appease the Trump administration.
A second point I find disturbing is that while some academics have been willing to raise the rather obvious concerns about academic freedom, very few are willing to make the other obvious point: the student protesters are taking a brave and morally correct stand by opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The Trump administration is simply responding like other repressive regimes do: faced with criticism that it cannot address on the merits, it chooses to attack its critics by inventing false charges of anti-semitism.
